Bridging the Rural Divide: Blueprinting the Rural Ubicomp Toolkit for Community Mapping
Oct 2010 - May 2012

Participants
Matt Jones (Future Interaction Technology Lab, Swansea, overall project PI)
Andy Crabtree (Mixed Reality Lab, Nottingham PI)
Alan Chamberlain (Mixed Reality Lab, Nottingham, Project Manager)
Peter Tolmie (Nottingham Ethnography Unit)
Gary Priestnall (Geography, Nottingham, Co-I)
Mark Paxton (Horizon Research Centre, Nottingham, Researcher)
Glen Hart (Research Manager, Ordnance Survey)
Chris Phillips (Developer, Ordnance Survey)
Paula Engelbrecht (Psychologist, Ordnance Survey)
Mike Bailey (Senior Reserves Manager, Dyfi, Countryside Council for Wales)
Jill Bullen (LANDMAP Wales Coordinator, Countryside Council for Wales)

Funding
EPSRC

Project Overview
This project aims to develop approaches to allow community groups and visitors to record, represent, and share experiences of the rural landscape, employing mobile technologies and public displays.Specifically, the research will develop a blueprint for DIY sensor hardware, software APIs for mobile experience capture, representation and sharing, and tools for users to create engaging public displays. The focus is on enhancing shared understandings of rural space and creating new connections between environment, leisure, and local business. It aims to explore mechanisms for mapping the rural landscape, capturing and re-presenting both personal observations but also sensor data. The research is directly supported by Ordinance Survey, the Horizon Digital Economy Research Hub, the Countryside Council for Wales and the Minister for Rural Affairs in Wales, where development of the rural ubicomp toolkit will be situated. The study site is the Dyfi nature reserve near Borth in Wales.


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My own particular interest in the project, working with Glen Hart and team in the Ordnance Survey research unit, is to explore the nature of geographic layers people actually want to map, and how the various vernaculars and frames of reference used to describe the landscape can be captured and re-presented.

Research Outcomes

Related Links
Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute